Minister of Finance Natalie Jaresko orders head of DFS to scrutinize customs clearance system

Minister of Finance Natalie Jaresko ordered head of the DFS Roman Nasirov to examine all customs declarations released under the IM40EA procedure, in order to detect violations and system abuse by customs officers who released goods under the simplified procedure despite alerts generated by the automatic risk analysis and management system. Natalie Jaresko told that at the press conference which took place on January 26 in the building of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

According to the Minister, the Ukrainian legislation has a general and a simplified customs clearance procedure in place. Normally, goods imported into Ukraine cross the border and are transported to the domestic customs offices for examination. It is only after this examination that they are cleared and released to consignees. For diligent companies which do not pose any risks in terms of customs rules violation, the Tax Code grants a simplified import procedure – ІМ40ЕА. Under this procedure, imported goods are cleared for free circulation at the border of Ukraine without being transferred for examination to local customs offices.

Such a simplified clearance process was made possible by deploying a risk analysis system automatically detecting potentially fraudulent companies and alerting the customs accordingly. As an example of such a risk, cases can be mentioned when the founder, general manager and chief accountant of a company importing goods is the same person (there is a high probability that this is a fictitious company). Thus, a customs officer can see at once if he can let this or that company apply the simplified procedure or has to have its goods checked at the respective domestic customs office.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance does receive information that the so-called risk profiles are not perfect and sometimes enable customs officials to apply the simplified procedure to companies which actually do not have the right to enjoy this exemption. "Apart from diligent companies which apply the simplified clearance procedure and do not pose any legal risk, this procedure is misused by tax-dodgers who deliberately reduce the declared value and weight of their goods declaring expensive items as cheaper ones", Natalie Jaresko said.

That was the reason for the Minister of Finance to order the head of the DFS to examine all customs declarations released under the ІМ40ЕА procedure, to detect violations and hold liable customs officers who released imported goods under the simplified procedure despite the alerts of the automatic risk analysis and management system. She also ordered to re-calculate duties accordingly and to transfer additional revenues related to the respective cases to the state budget. «Only compliant companies which do not pose any risks for the customs have the right to apply the simplified clearance procedure", Natalie Jaresko said.